


They've Come For Blood

by sleepyCJwritesSTUFFnow



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Ada x Leon, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chris x Jill, Drama, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fallout, Mystery, Parents Ada and Leon, Rebecca x Claire, Romance, Valenfield - Freeform, aeon - Freeform, also Ada and Leon have their own kid, also Jill and Chris have a daughter, and all sorts of drama, and she's a badass too, and so far it's working out okay for them, and the bunker isn't always the best place to be, because Sherry is too pure and deserves the world, but shit's about to go down, but they've all banded together to survive, plus Leon and Ada adopted Sherry when she was twelve, there's espionage
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27853714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepyCJwritesSTUFFnow/pseuds/sleepyCJwritesSTUFFnow
Summary: Nuclear fallout AU. It has been a decade since a nuclear disaster destroyed life as the world knew it, and everyone has had to band together in the midst of a government that no longer controls law enforcement while groups of masked vigilantes continue to wreck havoc and impose their own agendas on the world that has survived. As for Ada, Leon, Rebecca, Claire, Jill, Chris, and Carlos, they've managed to survive together with their own families and their own brute strength. The question remains, however, if they -- and the world -- are about to reach their breaking point.
Relationships: Chris Redfield/Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy/Ada Wong, Rebecca Chambers/Claire Redfield, Sherry Birkin/Jake Muller
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

_ I’ll be home soon, love...don’t worry about me. _

Leon stared at the note for a few seconds before pocketing it and glancing at the time. 2:27 AM. Ada was late again. He knew better than to be surprised, but he was nervous nonetheless. More than once, she had been caught up in something; stumbled across a body in questionable circumstances, been arrested, or, worse, even harmed. Thinking back, it occurred to him that Ada had been arrested almost too many times to count, both in and out of the country. The younger of their two children had even been born, by coincidence, in prison because Ada had been arrested for suspected espionage shortly before she had gone into labor. All things considered, however, it hadn’t mattered. Anyone with money, especially those thirteen years before, could get out and that was even more true now.

_ At least she’s never been charged with anything, _ Leon chewed on the inside of his cheek and opened the fridge, pulling out a half empty bottle of wine and pouring himself a rather full glass.  _ Damn, that would have been a shit show. We’d have all the damned vigilante idiots that run around these days on our asses. _

Ada’s past arrests, however, were the least of their concerns. The last fifteen years had encompassed so much and Leon doubted things were likely to improve. They had been married at the start of that; the destruction of Raccoon City had followed shortly after and, just five years later, the entire world had found itself trapped in bunkers as a nuclear disaster had led to severe fallout. Leon still couldn’t believe it. They had always assumed the worst case scenario would be nuclear war, not an accident. How they had ended up in the position they were still eluded him. Ten years had passed since the US reactors had failed. Ten years since all semblance of global law enforcement had collapsed and dissolved in the unrest and terror that had followed. Government was really just a suggestion these days, one that seemed only to have the power to try and distribute resources to the absolutely fucked communities. How had it been so long since they had fallen into this state? 

Just as unsettling was the knowledge in the back of everyone’s minds that ten years had passed, and they  _ still _ didn’t have any answers as to what happened and why.

“Well, this is a surprise. What are you doing awake, Leon?”

He sighed, flipping on a single light switch and sending Rebecca a rather exhausted look.

“Does it matter?” He grumbled. “I’m going to end up drinking a fuck ton of coffee either way.”

She rolled her eyes. “You do understand the concept of ‘we’re all stuck in this shit together,’ don’t you?”

“Given that we’ve all been living in this damn bunker for the last decade? Yeah, I would hope so.”

“You’re not being helpful.”

“Since when am I?” Leon shook his head and took a long sip of his drink. “Look, I’m not saying it hasn’t turned out for the best that we’re stuck with you, Chris, Jill, Claire, and Carlos, but you could be more sympathetic. Ada’s late and --”

“You really ought to ask your adopted daughter what that means,” Rebecca cut in, sending him a pointed look. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Leon, but Sherry often seems to be much more calm -- and frankly much more reasonable -- about these things than you. I get it, Ada’s your wife, and if anything happened to her I know you in particular would be devastated but drinking at almost three in the morning and worrying about it isn’t productive.”

Leon scowled at her but said nothing, realising, with a bit of shock, that Claire had gone out with Ada. He and Rebecca were, just about, in the same position and he had absolutely nothing to counter that. Exhausted, Rebecca sighed and reached for the phone, well aware that making contact with them would be the best way to get Leon to let it go. Apart from waking up the twenty seven year old Sherry -- who would have to be up in a few hours anyways to address the water supply and purifiers -- or any of the others, there weren’t really any better options. The line rang out for a solid minute, and then went to voicemail. Rebecca quickly began to flip through the notepad on the wall with all their mobiles (and a few, weekly rotating burners) written on it before trying to call Ada. No response.

“Well that’s ominous,” Leon remarked dryly.

“They’re probably just out of range,” Rebecca reminded him. “I doubt --”

A harsh rap rang out against the door. Leon almost dropped the wine as he reached for a nearby gun. Grabbing her own off the wall, Rebecca did the same, only for the door to finally slide open from the PIN being entered on the outside. Claire stumbled in with Ada, who was struggling to walk, and they were both covered in blood. Leon breathed a small sigh of relief, glad to see that they were both, at the very least, alive. Claire dragged Ada to the couch and flipped on the lights the second she was able to lay the other woman down. Quickly imputing a new round of passcodes, Rebecca secured the bunker before grabbing the medical kit.

“What the hell happened out there?” She asked, glancing worriedly between Claire and Ada. “You both look like hell.”

“It’s not all our blood,” Claire replied, putting up her hands in surrender. “We were jumped, and, frankly, there are far more zombies running rampant than we thought.”

“Doesn’t help that we fucked up that car,” Ada muttered. “You could have been a more careful driver.”

“Given that you had just been stabbed several times in the side, I don’t think you were in any position to drive,” Claire shot back, the adrenaline still coursing through her at breakneck pace. “Just be glad we were able to get back with food and decent soaps.”

“Let me see your side,” Rebecca frowned when Ada rolled over and pulled up her shirt just enough for the wound to be visible. “How long has it been exposed?”

“About two hours,” Ada grimaced when Rebecca began to clean and slowly stitch up the wound. “That’s going to hurt like a bitch in the morning, isn’t it?”

“It’s probably not going to be a pleasant healing process, I can tell you that much,” Rebecca said, pausing to adjust her glasses before she continued her work. “I’m going to check it regularly to make sure it doesn’t get infected. Also, take it easy the next few days because it looks like you’ve lost quite a bit of blood.”

“I’ll go and get you something more comfortable to change into,” Leon added, offering his wife a small smile. “And please listen to Rebecca this time. After what happened last year --”

“I know, I know,” Ada said shortly, managing a half smile back. “Believe me, Leon, that was even more unpleasant for me than it was for you.”

He nodded and slipped off down the hall. Claire leaned against the wall, looking around and then pulling out her own makeshift wound dressings to examine them herself. All and all, she supposed, she had dealt with worse. The only real injuries she had sustained were in her left wrist (which, based on the shooting pain through it, she was beginning to think was broken), her knees (in which she imagined she had pulled more than a few muscles), and the deep cut up her arm that, thankfully, had stopped bleeding. Reaching into Rebecca’s medical kit, Claire slowly began to clean her wounds before bandaging them and wrapping up her wrist.

“Claire, if you give me just a few minutes, I can do that properly for you,” Rebecca noted, glancing up to meet her wife’s gaze.

“It’s fine,” Claire said, slumping down into a well worn, plush chair and probing her forehead with her uninjured right hand. “For the time being, anyways.”

“What exactly were you two doing that caused you to get jumped?” Rebecca asked, examining the stitches she had almost completed. “And how exactly did this happen, Ada?”

“We were looking for someone from the STARS that we heard is in the region,” Ada replied, swearing as Rebecca began to tightly finish closing the wound. “Long story short, we got in a fight with some vigilantes who thought we were bureaucrats and I got stabbed while your wife got herself a rather nasty cut too.”

“They’re starting to get out of control, too,” Claire added. “The vigilantes, that is. Apparently they robbed a government vehicle delivering food to a nearby town just the other day. Seems to me like they’re trying to not only control the spread of the new virus, but everyone else too.”

“They’re just too fucking righteous for their own good,” Ada muttered. “Oh! And there was one more thing we learned today that you all should know.”

“And what’s that?” Leon asked as he stepped back into the room.

Ada sighed. “Wesker’s still alive.”


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Sherry Birkin woke up and had come into the main bunker, Ada was still asleep and Claire was fighting with the security system. It was about eleven in the morning, and Jill and Carlos had already left for the day. Leon and Rebecca were also in the main bunker, poring over work and blueprints, presumably of the water filtration system. Yawning a little, Sherry stretched herself out and joined her adoptive father and Rebecca after pulling a yogurt out of the refrigerator. She didn’t often admit it, but the technical workings of the bunker had always fascinated her and, perhaps because of that, she was rather good when it came to adjusting and managing those features.

“Fuck!” Claire cursed and set down her hair-pin screwdriver in frustration, glowering at the wiring that operated the security system. “Rebecca, are you sure the facial recognition system will work? I can’t seem to get it to come online, and I’ve installed all the hardware.”

Rebecca took a sip of her coffee in thought. “Well,” She eventually said, setting down her warm drink. “Are you sure you put the wires into the correct inputs?”

“Fairly certain,” Claire muttered. “But take a look.”

“The wiring wrapped in red controls the infrared sensors, did you install those?” Sherry put in, picking up the blueprint of the system off the counter. “That might be your problem.”

Claire raised an eyebrow in surprise but did turn back to the system to inspect it. After a minute, she paused, turning towards them again and looking between her wife and Sherry.

“Is that supposed to be input into the red lock-cable?”

“The brown one,” Sherry told her, turning the blueprint around to show her. “Everything else should be correct, though. Not sure why Rebecca included an additional lock-cable that isn’t used but --”

“That lock cable was already there and it was more efficient to simply leave it there,” Rebecca shrugged and smiled at Claire, even though her wife sent her a dark look. “Sorry, love.”

“Yeah, you should be,” Claire rolled her eyes and changed the lock-cable. Seconds later, the touch pad in and out of the bunker came to life, signaling that the new function was up and running properly. “That was much more trouble than it was worth, thank you very much.”

“Rebecca’s always more trouble than she’s worth,” Leon laughed, not caring that both she and Claire were now scowling at him. “Sorry, but that’s a fact. All the times you tracked me down before we ended up in this hell hole proves it. Oh! And, of course, there was that time you had Claire go after me! I believe that was how Ada and I came across Sherry, actually. So I’ll call that one even...for now.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “You can’t honestly be bitter, Leon.”

He frowned. “We’ll see about that.”

“Hey!” Sherry exclaimed, looking at her adoptive father pitifully. “I like Rebecca and Claire, don’t make them want to kill us all in our sleep.”

Leon grimaced at the thought. “I sincerely hope that they would have killed us already if that were ever their intention. See, I happen to prefer being alive to being very much dead, and them shooting us all in our sleep doesn't play into that.”

“We wouldn’t shoot you,” Claire said, crossing her arms and sounding rather exasperated. “If we had ever wanted to kill you, we would have just given you cyanide and that would have been that. But, actually, that does bring me to an interesting point from last night we still haven’t discussed. Wesker being alive and kicking out there.”

Sherry’s eyes widened in shock. “Wesker isn’t dead? But I thought he and my father --”

“I thought Wesker and Birkin both had taken cyanide years ago, but,” Claire tiredly shook her head. “Evidently, I was wrong...extremely wrong, and it’s fucking obnoxious.”

Sherry looked away, deeply uncomfortable. “I could have sworn they both died.”

“You and me both,” Claire’s gaze darkened. “The next time I see Wesker, he and I are going to have a bit of a tit for tat and he is not going to enjoy what I do to him.”

“Provided the rest of us don’t get to him first,” Rebecca put in, an unusually harsh and bitter edge to her voice. “He betrayed all of us, and that goes double for those of us who were once in STARS.”

“I’d like to give him a piece of me,” Leon cracked his knuckles. “Especially for the shit he did to Ada.”

“You sure your wife won’t get to him first?” Rebecca dryly remarked. “She is an ex-spy, Leon. If she wants to do something -- go anywhere, gain access to information, kill someone, etc -- she is more than capable of doing it completely undetected.”

“She has a point,” Sherry said mildly, then quickly finishing her yogurt.

“Whatever,” Leon said, crossing his arms. “So, Wesker’s alive. Do we have any idea what he’s doing, what he wants, or if he’s even capable of doing anything other than being a piece of shit?”

Claire hesitated. “We don’t know that much,” She finally admitted. “Ada and I only heard about half of the conversation before we had to get the fuck out of dodge.”

“So you really only know that he’s not dead?” Leon pressed, a hint of irritation to his voice.

Claire narrowed her eyes. “That’s big news either way, Leon, news that we can all factor in for our operations. For instance, we might all want to start wearing masks again when we go out of the bunker on the off chance that an airborne virus is being spread again. Also, it's probably good that we’re upgrading the water filtration system because the Umbrella Corporation has used waterborne illnesses before too.”

“We probably shouldn’t leave much either,” Sherry put in, rubbing her neck. “Until we know more about what’s going on, that is. And there are still those vigilantes who jumped Ada and Claire last night. We should be worried about them too.”

Rebecca nodded shortly. “Yes,” She said grimly. “I do wonder why they’ve grown more blatant in recent weeks. They’ve spent years being at least somewhat subtle with their attacks on government aid vehicles. I can’t help but wonder why they’re doing it.”

“They’re just a bunch of assholes, Rebecca, there isn’t much depth to it,” Leon gruffly replied. “These are the same people that would kill a child if they thought it would benefit them. They don’t give a fuck about anything, so there’s really no point in trying to analyse them other than to get out of their way or to avoid getting our asses kicked by them.”

“I don’t disagree with that, Leon,” She sent him a terse look. “I was just expressing curiosity. I’m still a scientist, and I’m never going to stop questioning things. Maybe you should start being more curious. Look into enough things and it might keep you from doing something stupid or it’ll show you something you were overlooking. Sure as hell has given us leads before, if you’ll think back.”

Leon turned to her, shocked, and about to bite off a harsh response. However, hearing soft footsteps approaching the main bunker stopped him. His face softened when Ada stepped into the main bunker in her warm robe, underneath which the faintest glimpse of her lace and silk nightgown could be seen. She was limping a little, still very much unrecovered from the previous day’s events, and a little grey. He knew from Rebecca that she was not exhibiting any signs of infection or illness, but nevertheless she had been seriously injured and he was worried. He poured her a cup of warm coffee the second she sat down in one of the rickety bar stools around the kitchen island. With a tired smile, Ada took it and began to drink, the pain in her side briefly subsiding as the liquid warmed her up.

“What have you been discussing?” She finally asked, eyeing her husband. “And where’s Kelly?”

“Practicing shooting with Chris,” Leon replied, kissing her cheek. “The better Redfield,” He whispered.

Ada laughed. “Leon!”

“If he’s taking a jab at me, he’s been doing it for years,” Claire shrugged and started to put her tools away. “Becca could tell you. They go way back.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “We’ve known Leon just as long, love, don’t make it sound like I grew up shooting ducks with him.”

Sherry snickered at the thought. “I’d love to see that.”

“I would not,” Ada said shortly, glancing to her and then back to Leon. “You didn’t answer my other question. What have you been discussing?”

“Vigilantes, Wesker, the security systems,” Leon counted off, sounding almost bored. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Ada shook her head. “I assume Claire told you what we know?”

“Yep,” Leon confirmed, jamming his hands into his pockets. “And I definitely have more questions than answers.”


	3. Chapter 3

A gunshot rang out across the room, followed by another in quick succession. Pausing to look at her work, Kelly Wong-Kennedy grinned when she saw her accuracy. It was still rather rough, but it had improved vastly over the few weeks alone. Something about shooting stirred a surprising amount of joy in her. She swore it had nothing to do with the thrill of knowing she would eventually be allowed to go out of the bunker, armed with Sherry rather than simply be protected. Still, the little time she had spent in the world made her curiosity about it even greater. She knew her parents were skilled fighters, as was her adopted sister and the rest of them. Kelly wanted more than anything to have that strength in herself, and she wanted to enjoy it. At the very least, she wanted to have more than just life in the bunker, even if she weren’t going out much more than she was already scantily allowed to.

“Getting better, Kelly,” Chris remarked, finally looking up from his computer to examine her work. “You’re actually hitting the target. Good for you.”

Kelly turned towards him and set her hands to her hips. “Hey!” The thirteen year old exclaimed. “I’m not that bad!”

“You’re that good either,” Chris jokingly replied. “You’re not bad, but you have a lot of work to do. And don’t forget that Leon won’t teach you to drive his truck until you know how to shoot.”

Kelly smirked. “Who’s to say I don’t already know how to drive?”

Chris chortled. “And who taught you that? Ada?”

“She’s never home,” Kelly countered. “Unless she’s injured, that is. Usually she’s out doing shit.”

“Still haven’t answered my question,” Chris reminded her, stretching out his arms. “Of course, if you’re bluffing, I wouldn’t blame you. All things considered, you are the baby.”

Kelly scowled. “Claire spends half her time cursing out technology, and, when she took me out to steal food from vigilantes last week, she spent most of that telling me to take cover in the back of her car while she did reckless shit and declared that evasion will eventually be too much work.”

Chris shrugged. “Sounds like my sister but, hey, at least she’s keeping you safe.”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “It’d be a lot easier if I could fire some shots too.”

“And miss your targets?” Chris shook his head. “We’d rather you not get shot at, and I would rather not have Ada try to kill us for letting you get hurt.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kelly muttered, reloading her gun and turning back towards the targets. “Whatever you say, Chris. Either way, I’d like permission to kill zombies soon so --”

“Now, hold on there,” He said, standing up and slowly starting to approach her. “You haven’t even learned their critical points yet. Don’t you think that’s important? After all, you’ve only been learning how to shoot  _ people _ if they attack you. Now, I wouldn’t be shocked if that happens given the kind of assholes that have pooled around here but the point is more that I wouldn’t take my chances if I were you. I mean, you did see what happened to your mom and Claire, didn’t you? And they’re experienced. Hell, Ada’s an ex-spy.”

Kelly irritably blew on her hair and began to focus her gaze on the target. “So?” She said, her voice low and precise. “Doesn’t mean shit, does it? Dad says we’ve all had to adapt to this kind of life, so --”

“Experience is always going to make you a better fighter,” Chris told her. “You think I was as skilled as I am now in hand to hand combat as I was when I was first selected for STARS? Because, believe me, I was much worse then, at everything.”

“Glad you mentioned STARS,” Kelly said, narrowing her eyes at the target and preparing to take a shot. “Mom told me Albert Wesker is still alive and others might be too. What do you make of that?”

“Wesker lost his soul for the sake of his ginormous God-complex,” Chris remarked with a bitter edge to his voice. “I can’t say I’m not surprised the son of a bitch survived though. I really did think he was dead, and the fact he’s not does worry me.”

“Because he’s the mastermind behind all of the viruses?” Kelly asked, pressing down on the trigger. She smirked to herself before he began to answer when she saw her shot hit the target square in the chest.

“Not just that,” Chris said, watching her form as she prepared to take another shot. “And don’t tense your shoulders. Your aim is going to suffer if you don’t relax more.”

Kelly sighed and rolled back her shoulders, then taking position again. “Okay,” She said, focusing again. “But what’s so scary about Wesker if it’s not his role in creating the viruses?”

“He’s a manipulative sociopath to the worst extent,” Chris replied. “Everything Wesker does, he does for his own gain, whatever that may be. Why do you think he was so thorough in his hand picks for the STARS?”

“‘Cus y’all were always some of the strongest fighters from the military or police departments?” Kelly suggested, firing a second shot, and then a third in quick succession.

“A little more complicated than that, actually,” Chris said grimly. “We all had skills he needed to create a ‘perfect’ team of operatives. I don’t know how much he had ever planned out before we dissolved, but I wouldn’t be shocked to find out one of these days that he had meant to control our lives from the start and had led us, somehow, to be in the positions we were when he courted us with the offer.”

“Great,” Kelly said darkly. “So someone like that is alive and in the region.”

“I’d give it about seventy percent odds that he’s found a way to become associated with the vigilantes and underworld crime,” Chris said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. “Wesker may be an absolute shit of a human being, but he is still a genius. Honestly, I’d argue that’s what is the most dangerous about him. Plus, if he was smart enough to survive so long without being outed or arrested --”

“The government doesn’t do shit but provide food, that’s literally all it’s good for,” Kelly cut in, then firing another shot. “Damn it! That was --”

“You’re not using your dominant eye, Kelsey,” He said, eliciting a scowl from her for (a) using her full name and (b) reminding her of something she already knew. “Your eyes keep wandering rather than focusing. That’s your real problem. You can’t always decide what it is you’re shooting at.”

Kelly swore under her breath and then set down her gun. “Got any other suggestions?” The thirteen year old said, trying to not sound as irritated as she was.

“Try not using an automatic weapon,” He said, opening the wall to reveal the weapons arsenal. “Those value quick shots more than accuracy, and you need to improve that more than anything else right now.”

Kelly set down her rifle and, albeit with a scowl, caught the pistol he tossed her way.

“This feels too damn small to do any real damage,” She remarked, weighing the weapon in her hands. “At least against zombies, that is.”

“If you know where to shoot, then it’s just as effective,” Chris paused and turned towards the stairs down into the range when he heard the door above slide open. When Rebecca came down, he smirked. “So! The medic finally decides to come check out the weapons again!”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Clever, Chris, but no. I was just getting a few mags for Claire since she and Sherry are about to leave to get some replacement parts and pick up a few people.”

Chris and Kelly both turned towards her in surprise, the latter’s eyes going wide in a bit of fear and rampant excitement.

“Who?” She pressed.

Rebecca sighed. “Jake Muller and a woman travelling with him called Alice. I’m not really sure what her deal is, but they got communications up long enough in their own temporary facility for me to speak with her and she seems to be alright. We don’t know much about her and I’m going to keep a close eye on her...but Sherry trusts Jake with her life and they have worked together a few times before so she’s doing him a favor. He’s not involved in any of the other groups around the region, in case you were wondering. Actually, I don’t think he’s been here much longer than five years. At the very least, that was the first time Sherry worked with him.”

“More people is good, though,” Chris cracked his knuckles. “We’ll probably be able to go out more and get more supplies, so we’ll probably end up being much better off.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair,” Rebecca shook her head. “We’ll see what happens, but Claire and Sherry convinced me to give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope that’s not misguided.”

“What about my parents?” Kelly asked. “Or Jill and Carlos?”

“Ada managed to scrape together a profile on him and a bit on her based on simply her face,” Rebecca paused for a moment and frowned. “And let’s just say Jake isn’t the one we’re concerned about. There’s virtually no information on who this Alice woman is, and, while Jill worked with her briefly over a decade ago, she doesn’t know much more about her than we already do. The gist of it is that she once worked for Umbrella.”

“Ugh,” Kelly muttered. “Fuck Umbrella.”

Rebecca smiled. “Say that to Ada,” She told her. “I think it’ll make her smile. After all, she used to work for Wesker.”

“I might,” Kelly glanced between her and Chris. “But, hey, fresh blood is fresh blood either way.”

Chris winked. “Yes, we’re bringing people in and they’re just blood bags.”

“Do me a favor and don’t say that,” Rebecca shot him a pointed look. “We’re all just trying to survive, Chirs, and I don’t want it to get any harder. We’ve got enough shit to deal with already.”

“You can say that again,” Chris turned back to Kelly. “Now get to practicing with that pistol. I’d like you to learn to be accurate soon, pipsqueak.”

Kelly scowled. “Oh, believe me,” She said, her resolve clear in her voice. “I’ll get it...just you wait.”


	4. Chapter 4

Almost recklessly, Claire Redfield whirled her car around into the old parking lot and right up against the curb where Jake Muller and the woman called Alice were standing, waiting for her and Sherry. After a moment of looking around their surroundings, Sherry jumped out of the passenger side door and tightly embraced Jake, who hugged her back. Claire smiled, but she also began tapping her fingers anxiously against the steering wheel. It was only mid-day, so she wasn’t terribly worried about vigilante activity so much as she was concerned about the virus outbreak that had begun just a few miles away. The last thing she wanted was for her wife to have to inject all of them with antidotes the second they stepped into the bunker. Already, she could hear Rebecca gently chiding her for taking such risks.

Out of the corner of her eye, Claire also watched the woman called Alice. She was watching Jake and Sherry’s embrace almost emotionlessly and had several bags variously tied and slung around her. After swallowing hard, she opened one of the side doors to the backseat of the car and dropped her bags down on the floor before crawling over to the far side herself. She silently secured herself, and sat cross legged on the seat with the bags having piled up far too high for her to sit comfortably otherwise. Claire tried not to watch her too closely, but her curiosity was too great not to. Silently, she supposed that must have been her wife’s influence on her over the years. Sherry and Jake were chattering and, though Claire had a few thoughts on why they seemed to be so close despite Sherry’s claims that they had only ever worked together, she let it go.

At least, that was, Claire let the subject go because they did get into the car quickly after Alice, which was her primary concern. So long as they could get back to the bunker safely and with all of the additional supplies she had loaded up the trunk with about an hour prior, Claire didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened between them. Things were far too dangerous for her to care much about what, she told herself, was really only ever going to amount to her own mind creating gossip. Letting out a heavy sigh and starting to drive off quickly, Claire tried to purge her mind of the thoughts that had been swirling around since she had first agreed to be the one to retrieve them with Sherry. Leon and Ada had made it excruciatingly clear that they didn’t want her going alone, which, privately, Claire believed meant they suspected something was going on between Sherry and Jake as well.

“How are the two of you?” Sherry asked, turning as much as she could from her seat to try and meet Jake and Alice’s gazes in the back. “If anything, you both look a bit better off than the last time.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Given that last time we were both covered in blood and almost got killed, yeah, I would say that we’re definitely better off now. Hope it wasn’t too hard to convince your family and the others to let us join you. Shit’s getting real dangerous out here.”

“That’s exactly why I suggested it,” Sherry replied with a smile. “I’m not going to leave my friends out to dry, come on, who do you think I am?”

“Well, you’re certainly much nicer than your father,” Alice remarked, her voice low. She did not look up from her hands. “William was a bit of a dick, if I do say so myself. Not worse than Wesker, but a piece of shit nonetheless. I guess the only good thing I can say about him is that he cared about your mother.”

Sherry’s face fell. “Yeah,” She said quietly.

“Did you ever work with William Birkin?” Claire asked, looking at her for a few seconds through the rearview mirror. “I know you said you worked at Umbrella at one point, but --”

“Birkin, Wesker,” Alice said shortly. “I did work with a few others too, but none of them are worth mentioning. I worked strictly in robotics and artificial intelligence. I didn’t even know about what they were working on beyond that, let alone when it came to Wesker’s scheme with STARS.”

Claire frowned. “Did you hear that he’s still alive?”

Alice looked up rather suddenly in shock, her face losing what little color it had. “He’s not dead?” She exclaimed. “I could have sworn he had died years ago!”

“Yeah, that’s what we all thought,” Claire said grimly, her hands tightening around the steering wheel as she forced herself to focus on the road. “Of course, I can’t be all that surprised. The son of a bitch has always been good at preserving himself. Fuck, that might as well be the only thing he’s good at, protecting himself and his goddamn --”

“He always has,” Jake shook his head. “It’s alright, Claire. All of us hate him.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Sherry scowled out the window. “Wesker is one of the reasons my life got ruined, and, just as much, I sure as hell think he is at least partially responsible for the shit that led to the fallout in the first place. You see these,” She rolled up and sealed the windows entirely, pulling off her gas mask. “And these?” She gestured to her radiation suit. “I guarantee you he was involved. It certainly reeks of him, since I’ve been looking at it recently.”

Claire briefly looked to her and reached over to pat her shoulder. “Becca and I wouldn’t be too shocked if that were the case, either,” She finally said. “Since we’ve found information that appears to point in the same direction.”

Alice swallowed hard. “Well,” She said, taking in a deep breath. “I would believe that too.”

Uncomfortably, silence fell over them and Jake, in particular, seemed nervous. He also took off his gas mask and set it on top of the bags. While he started to rub his neck, it occurred to Claire, who had been trying to balance watching everything in the rearview mirror and keeping her eyes on the road, Alice (a) hadn’t been wearing one and (b) didn’t seem to be affected by anything around them. Her stomach sunk. Was it possible she was immune to radiation? How the hell would that be possible? And, then, was she not at all concerned about any of the viruses that were being spewed into the air? The last few days had changed so much, and Claire was still grateful that she and Ada hadn’t contracted anything while they had been out on their supply run.

“So, on a lighter note,” Jake nervously chuckled. “How are all of you doing at the bunker? You said it’s not just you, Sherry, and Rebecca, right? I can’t remember who else it is.”

“Jill, Chris, Carlos, Leon, Ada, and Kelly,” Claire quickly counted off. “Kelly, by the way, is Ada and Leon’s younger daughter, and their biological kid. Don’t worry about it, you’ll get used to everyone quickly. It's not as if we’re constantly trying to get in each other’s way.”

Jake stared at her in surprise. “Huh, well, that gives me hope.”

Sherry smiled at him. “Glad to know you can still joke a little.”

“I’m still human, Sherry,” Jake replied, leaning back a little. “Not going to lie, though, it will be nice to get a decent sleep for once.”

Alice nodded shortly. “Yes, that will be good...not having to listen to gunshots all night on hard ass concrete.”

Claire grimaced. “I’m glad you two managed to survive so long living like that. Sounds like your security was next to none.”

“That’s part of why we needed you guys,” Jake put in. “The vigilantes are getting increasingly aggressive and God knows that they’re going to move into our old make-shift bunker by the end of the day once they realise that it’s empty.”

“We’re much better off than that,” Sherry grinned. “See, we’ve been steadily upgrading for years and it does help that we’ve got quite a bit of man power to keep stealing the shit we need to continue to survive.”

Claire nodded. “Thank God,” She muttered. “We’ve got way too much shit to worry about when it comes to breach attempts...although between our security and the hidden entrances? I don’t even think the vigilantes know the full extent of our bunker and, while they certainly are willing to fuck with us when we’re out of it, they have never tried to attack it. Probably because they know we’d kill them in a fair fight, which that definitely would be.”

Alice glanced up, a nervous glint in her eyes. “I’m just tired of all of the carnage,” She said quietly. “And if getting rid of Wesker once and for all will make shit better...even a little...then that’s what we ought to focus on.”

“We’re still trying to figure out where he is,” Claire cautioned her.

“He’ll crop up sooner or later,” Jake frowned. “And let’s just hope that it doesn't make shit hit the fan.”

Sherry bit her lip and glanced at herself in the side view mirror. “Amen to that,” She said under her breath. “Amen to that.”


	5. Chapter 5

It was pouring rain by the time Claire, Sherry, Jake, and Alice were able to pull into the secure-entrance of the bunker, and Claire in particular was on edge. Her skin was crawling when she finally shut off the engine and got out of the car, and she stood there, simply leaning against it for several minutes while Sherry, Jake, and Alice all went into the main bunker. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right, and the fact that she could have sworn Alice wasn’t even trying to protect herself rubbed her the wrong way. It was almost as if she weren’t even human. Was it possible that she was a design of Umbrella’s from years before, a design that Wesker was only able to take advantage of now? Shuddering despite herself, Claire tried not to think too hard about the possibility. It was slim at best, she knew, and she doubted starting a fight among them would make things any better.

But,  _ damn _ , did she have questions. So much seemed out of place, and it wasn’t even just Alice. She had her thoughts on Sherry’s trust of Jake, and the amount of questions she had about their relationship (or, as she reminded herself, lack thereof) was almost consuming in and of itself. Even if there weren’t anything going on between them beyond a simple partnership, Claire wanted to know where it had stemmed from and she wanted to know for herself. If the events since the fallout had proven anything to her, it was that people who keep such secrets often lacked a good reason for it. Ada had been telling her for years that she simply overthought things, and that no one was that good a spy, or that good a manipulator. It meant nothing to her. Even Leon’s insistence that “most secrets are bullshit anyways,” didn’t sit quite right with her.

_ No one tells their darkest deeds _ , Her mind whispered, almost as if it were a snake curling around her head. The sensation was almost real to her, and, startled, Claire whipped around only to realise that rainwater from the car had been dripping down her coat and a bit of it had hit her neck.  _ And two people can’t keep a secret, not unless one of them is dead. That’s just not how people work. _

Taking a look around, Claire calmed herself. The secure-entrance was more than familiar, and it had a calming presence to it, if only because she knew that no one could be let in or out without the proper codes and, even then, there was one more access point before one could enter the main bunker. It was a part of the only secure place in the world for her, and it was the one place where the people she cared about lived. The ones that had survived, at any rate. So much destruction went on around them, and especially today, a day where she felt increasingly on edge and was more than aware that what had happened to her and Ada not too long ago were only the beginning. She was not naive, and neither were their enemies whether that be Wesker, the vigilantes, or anyone else who was lurking out there in the shadows and had any number of plans for the world.

Her footsteps heavy against the concrete, Claire buzzed herself back into the main bunker. When she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she paused. Her hair was in disarray, her eyes were nothing short of exhausted, and she could have sworn she looked almost like a ghost. Her stomach began to further twist into knots as she looked at herself. Was she also off? Was it possible that, after all these years, she had finally snapped? Was she seeing things where they simply were not because she had become so paranoid? She supposed it was possible. Swallowing hard, she tried not to think about how many people they had all killed over the years, or the violence that had ensued around their lives in a painful, draining cycle. The more she thought about it, the worse she would feel and she already knew it from past experience.

Looking away, Claire let her hands curl into fists. She rolled her shoulders back, too, as she walked down the corridor and towards the main living area. When she finally entered it, she saw Ada at the table, still heavily bandaged, but otherwise fine, and reading through the latest news updates on a holo-tablet. Kelly and Chris were cooking dinner, and Jill and Carlos seemed to be in a spirited debate over different forms of artillery. Leon, beside Ada, was working on making adjustments to a few of his own guns, and the woman, Alice, sat across from them, merely watching and looking completely numb. Sherry and Jake were nowhere to be found. Claire sighed, but reminded herself that they had to be still in the bunker; someone would have noticed if they had left. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Rebecca entered the room behind her and, ever so gently, set a hand to her wife’s shoulder.

“You really ought to sit down,” Rebecca told her. “And, God, your hands are freezing. Don’t tell me you drove with the windows down.”

“I didn’t,” Claire glanced around and then shook her head. “I was out in the secure-entrance for a while, that’s all.”

Rebecca frowned. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Probably just exhausted,” Claire muttered, reaching up to probe her forehead. “And maybe need a drink. To be honest, I’m not really sure.”

Rebecca eyed her critically for a moment. “Tell me about it later,” She whispered, squeezing her shoulder.

Claire nodded shortly. “Fine,” She agreed, slowly walking over towards Kelly and Chris and leaning against the counter. “I sure hope you two finish that soon, because I’m exhausted. And, by the way, be glad we were able to snag some bags of fresh potatoes from the vigilantes.”

“Believe me,” Chris said, rolling his eyes. “No one’s going to risk you being hungry, Claire. You eat more than I do, and, honestly, I’m still extremely impressed by it.”

Claire scowled. “That’s not helpful.”

“He just likes to say shit,” Kelly laughed. “But at least you managed to nick something off them other than bread and carrots.”

“We usually have far more than that,” Claire countered, unable to hide the fact she was amused. “They aren’t rabbits, Kelly. They’re assholes who seem to feast mostly off of human misery.”

“And I thought that was the role of the Umbrella Corporation!” Carlos called over, chuckling. “Well, at any rate, that would be a more honest motto for them!”

“No,” Ada said shortly, looking up only briefly to send him a dark look. “That would be ridiculous.”

Leon raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly would you say is better?”

Ada rolled her eyes and pecked his cheek before setting down her tablet to thoroughly scowl at Carlos.

“The sole phrase I believe suits them is ‘death is the undeniable fuel of life,’” She said smoothly, not even a hint of a smile or an indication of sarcasm in her voice. “At least, that’s what I’ve always seen.”

“That’s accurate,” Alice put in, so quietly that it took them a minute to realise she had spoken.

“Sadly, yes,” Rebecca agreed, looking a bit uncomfortable as she looked among them. “Well,” She said a few seconds later, regaining herself. “Let’s just all be glad that we’re all alive and can address things as they are now rather than how they were over a decade ago.”

“No arguments here,” Chris said, turning towards her and putting up his hands in surrender. “At this point, I try not to think about Umbrella, STARS, or any of it. It’s not worth it. All that shit disbanded years ago.”

Ada raised an eyebrow. “If Wesker is still alive,” She said cooly, though her voice betrayed the fact that she was alarmed. “Then none of that is truly beyond us.”

Leon sighed. “It might as well be,” He said, reaching for her hand. “And I, for one, wouldn’t like to see them make a comeback under these circumstances. I wouldn’t put it past the vigilantes to work with people like him. He certainly knows how to play people for fools, and, given the disarray the government is in, that can be used to their favor.”

“There’s no guarantee they’ll know who he is or what he’s capable of even if he does try to work with them,” Ada countered. “Truthfully, I hope he does try something and that they kill him for it. It sure would make things easier for us.”

Leon nervously looked to Claire. “Any thoughts?” He asked. “You were there too when shit went down.”

Claire hesitated. “I’m with Ada,” She said, crossing her arms. “I don’t think any of us want to have to deal with more tomfuckery than we already do, and I’d be fucking grateful to the damn vigilatnes for once if they took out Wesker.”

“That’s not likely to happen,” Carlos warned her. “Hell, he might not even survive much longer. I doubt he has much going for him.”

“I wouldn’t underestimate what he’s capable of,” Claire coldly replied. “After Raccoon? He’s capable of anything, and that’s not even up for debate. I just hope we can figure something out before shit goes to hell….our position already isn’t great...and all of us know it, whether or not we’re willing to admit it quite yet.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Going into high security mode in ten, nine…”

Jake felt his stomach drop as he watched Claire and Sherry, essentially, shut down the entire bunker. Heavy rainfall had been continuing for days, now, and, by the sound of it, the area was (a) at risk of flooding and (b) much more dangerous given how easily trails were becoming obscured. Of course, he knew that, for at least another two months (if the rain were to continue that long, which they all hoped it would not), there was more than enough food and supplies in the bunker and that all of them would be more than able to survive. However, there was something especially ominous about shutting down completely and it drove a deep feeling of discomfort deep into his core. It felt as if it were only exacerbating the fact that things were not well, and that was, indeed, something that left him feeling incredibly ill at ease. Alice had told him months ago that she thought shit was going to hit the fan sooner rather than later and, as it happened, it seemed she had been right.

Taking in a deep breath, Jake turned back to his work. Among other things, he was sorting through multiple boxes of unmarked bullet types and consolidating the matches in their own, small bins. Albeit comparatively dull work to that of Sherry’s (which, until just now, had included going out and raiding vigilante outposts with Claire, Rebecca, and the now-fully recovered Ada), it was at least relaxing work. If he had needed anything of late, it had been exactly that. Between the stress in the last week and a half of moving into the bunker with Alice and the growing concern that the situation in the area was worsening, Jake was relieved he hadn’t lost it. Stealing a brief glance at Sherry, Jake smiled to himself. She was certainly the primary reason he was as happy to be where he was, and he was struggling to hide it from her (decidedly overprotective) adoptive father, though he did fear Ada a bit more. It was her history in espionage that did him in, on that account.

“Tell Leon I’m going to need him to take a look at some of our vehicles with Chris tonight,” Claire said, winking at Sherry. “And feel free to tell Kelly that I’m going to teach her to ride a motorcycle soon. That girl needs someone to be loose in her life, and she sure as hell won’t get ‘loose and fun-loving’ from Ada and Leon. Don’t tell them I said that, by the way.”

Sherry smirked. “You assume I haven’t said things like that to them before.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “Just go.”

Sherry nodded and, as she passed Jake, briefly squeezed his shoulder. For the split second their eyes met, he caught her smile and, she, his. Claire, thankfully, did not take note of it and instead quickly gathered her tools and locks together, dropping them in a box, and holding it against her hip.

“You almost done with those bullets, Jake?”

He turned towards her and nodded. “Gimme a few more minutes and I’ll have ‘em all sorted. I’ll bring them up to the main bunker then.”

Claire shrugged. “Take all the time you need. You’ll get it done faster than I will, at any rate. I’m not so good at sitting still for that kind of thing.”

Jake laughed a little to himself while she made her way up the stairs but, for Claire, things were far less lighthearted. The last two days alone had been exhausting, and she was still sore all over from the last raid. While, thankfully, neither her, nor Ada, nor Sherry had gotten injured, they had crashed a stolen police vehicle to get into the vigilante outpost in the first place, and, while they had been able to blow it up and the explosion had certainly made things easier for them (read: it had killed the low-ranking vigilantes that the big-wigs had left to guard the outpost during the day), it had made it more difficult for them to steal some of the shit they needed. With a slight shudder, Claire recalled Ada yelling at her over not bringing more bags to stuff food and supplies into, while Sherry, ever resourceful, snagged one of the empty body bags lying around to stuff guns and almost glutinous amounts of ammunition into.

Admittedly, it had been a pretty good haul once they had been able to run (though running could be viewed as quite the exaggeration as to what they actually did) with their bags back to their hidden, getaway car, the fact remained that it wouldn’t be too long before the big-wigs realised what had been done and who was responsible. Surprising herself, Claire realised that Ada may not have been completely unhinged to suggest that “a good solution” to their problem could be to carry collar bombs and lock some of the low-ranking vigilantes into them as a way of ensuring they got the best of, as she put it, everything. Nevertheless, the last thing any of them needed was to escalate the tensions and, as she was sure Rebecca would remind her, it would be reckless to try and take control of the situation that way and, besides, none of them were particularly eager to start a turf war with a group much larger (if far less skilled, for the most part) than them.

The fear that Wesker could have been watching and trailing them the whole time, however, was what scared her the most. While, she supposed, it could very well be paranoia, Claire couldn’t shake the feeling that the former head of the STARS, now that they knew he was out there, would come for them. He certainly would have motive to; several of them, her wife and brother included, were former members of STARS themselves and, all things considered, Wesker probably wanted them dead. Then, of course, there was Ada, who had double crossed him at least six times over at this point, by Claire’s reckoning, and Leon, who Wesker probably still had a bone to pick with over any number of things, not the least of which his involvement in Ada’s (many) instances of screwing him over. If he were to find out where they were (which none of them doubted him to be capable of), Claire was terrified that shit would go down and that it would not end well for them.

_ Then again,  _ She reasoned with herself,  _ if it’s just him, we’d vastly outnumber him. He wouldn’t try something that reckless, even if he thought he had a slim chance of winning. He’s a twat, but he’s not stupid. We could take him if he showed up here...that is, if he didn’t bring a whole lot of powerful backup. _

“Claire!”

Nearly dropping her tools, Claire whipped around to see her wife down the hall just as she reached the top of the stairwell. Rebecca shook her head and stepped towards her, taking the box from her and looping one arm around hers. Her cheeks tinged a bit pink from the fluster, Claire did not object to her wife’s gentle embrace and, if anything, she was relaxed, feeling Rebecca’s strong arm against her own. As they made their way back into the main bunker, Claire’s heart beat slowly normalised and, even though they walked in silence, she felt much better. Rebecca’s presence had always been rather calming to her and, for years now, just being with her had helped keep some of her worst impulses at bay. Just as much, Claire was fully convinced that she and Rebecca helped each other think clearly, which, especially with as tumultuous as things had been, was its own blessing.

“You’ll have more ammo for target practice soon, Leon,” Claire grinned at the man, who glimpsed up from the newspaper, an eyebrow quirked upwards upon hearing her and Rebecca enter. “Jake’s almost done with it. I didn’t look too closely at it, but it seems like we got pretty lucky this time around on that count.”

“Good,” Leon said, setting down the paper to stretch himself out. “I’d like to do something while we wait this damn storm out.”

Ada sighed. “It’s more than the storm, Leon. You and I both know that Wesker is out there, and we really don’t want to take our chances with that particular asshole right now.”

Leon shrugged. “I doubt we’d have that much of a problem if we ran into him. It’s not like the son of a bitch has a lot of money or connections anymore, right?”

“That’s reckless,” Rebecca warned him, all but tearing open a storage closet to stash away the tools her wife had brought up. “Wesker is far more cunning than you’re giving him credit for. Ada’s right...especially considering that I think Chris, Carlos, Jill, and I have managed to, with a bit of technical help from Alice, pin down a handful of locations he may be inclined to take harbor in.”

Leon’s eyes widened in shock. “You're a goddamn wizard,” He said, laughing a little to ease his nerves. “Mind showing me this later?”

“Sure,” Rebecca said, slamming the closet shut and turning towards him and Ada. “I’d like to show both of you, actually.”

Ada nodded shortly. “I might be able to help narrow it down further. I worked with him for years, also, and I hate to say it but I do know many of his….habits quite well.”

Claire sighed. “Don’t we all?” She muttered. “By now, that is…”


	7. Chapter 7

As late as it was, two people, so it happened, were awake in the bunker. Curled up next to her husband, Ada lightly sighed. She still couldn’t believe how long they had called this place home. She only hoped it would keep them from being slaughtered by waver was out there, be it the vigilantes, Wesker, or someone or something else entirely. Maddening, really, was the only word to describe how the situation made her feel. Thinking about it for too long made it impossible to comprehend, and it certainly felt as if they were trying to catch smoke with their bare hands. There were far too many unknowns, which, she supposed, was part of why they had decided that not leaving the bunker for the next several weeks would be the most prudent.

_ And, perhaps _ , She thought,  _ Sherry had said it best when she remarked that things are only getting worse. _

“You alright?” Leon’s warm hand lingered on her shoulder, where he had been trying to help unravel some of her tension. “What’s on your mind?”

Ada gave him a small smile. “Just glad that it’s not just us in this home,” She quietly replied. “Without the others, I don’t think we’d be so lucky...and without you and Kelly, I don’t think I’d survive.”

Leon lightly laughed. “Well, you should be glad, then, that I’m pretty damn good with guns and trucks. Without those things, I probably would have been zombie chow years ago.”

Ada rolled her eyes. “You always have to go and make it weird, don’t you?”

“That’s not entirely fair,” Leon replied with a faint smirk. “But I’m happy to have you here with me, Ada.”

A heavy silence fell between them, and Ada stood up, pushing a cupboard door open to reveal the mirror, under which were several old letters that she had tied up. Leon watched her closely, well aware of what she was looking over. Their records, the updates, and reports that Rebecca gave them access to. Most of their information was stored in the network systems but Ada, ever diligent, prefered to have physical copies in case anything were to happen. She, more than any of them, had not forgotten Raccoon. It had been before the net had become widespread, admittedly, but there was no backup. The records of almost everything had been destroyed, something that she swore made things worse in the aftermath, citing the mansion incident that Jill still occasionally complained about as an example.

Umbrella knew more than any other company in the area, and they knew plenty to do a serious amount of damage while simultaneously destroying their records. The government, while it had still had any semblance of true power, had never been able to truly pin them down for anything, even though they had quite a bit of evidence. There was never enough evidence to indict. There was never enough to prove people like Albert Wesker had, in fact, been working to create horrible things that would do serious damage, even though everyone was pretty sure he had always intended to betray his own unit and to send everything to hell. Ada’s eyes lingered over an old report on the possibility of Wesker’s death, and the knowledge, now, that he was certainly still alive made her nervous.

“Thanks to Alice updating the software, we were able to get a better render of the general area and its surroundings,” She finally said. “But nothing seems to line up with what we think Wesker’s activity is. We can’t find him, we can’t do anything.”

“That’s why we’re staying in the bunker, for now,” Leon leaned back, stretching out his arms. “We’ll be fine, Ada. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I mean, I’m not saying I don’t fear Wesker, but he probably doesn’t have any idea where the hell we are.”

Ada sighed. “That’s fair,” She said, turning around and crossing her arms. “But, still, Leon. This is not good and I don’t like any of it. Even Carlos seems nervous, and he usually doesn’t fear anything. You and I both know this is bad, don’t try to underplay it.”

“I’m not doing that,” Leon put his hands up in surrender. “Come on, Ada, you know that. I’m just saying that we don’t really have much to fear.”

“I can agree with that,” She said, running a hand through her hair tiredly. “The vigilantes are probably a bigger threat than Wesker ever will be, but the notion of him being alive sets me on edge.”

“Yeah,” He shook his head. “Wesker can go to hell. He’s absolutely disgusting, I mean, honestly, if he’s out there then I guarantee you that he’s working to get himself back on top.”

Ada’s eyes narrowed, her bitterness towards the man showing through. “If I see Wesker,” She said, her voice low. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”

“I’ll help,” Leon said, standing up and cracking his knuckles. “Might punch him out, too. If Birkin is out there, too, then I’ll take some shots at him as well. Both of those assholes deserve it, for all the shit they’ve caused. I doubt Sherry will have any objections, either.”

“I’m sure she won’t,” Ada said, starting to pace. “He wasn’t exactly what I would call a good father.”

Leon shook his head. “He was neglectful. That’s what Claire told me, anyways.”

“That might be too nice,” Ada remarked darkly. “The way I heard it, he was abusive towards his wife and daughter.”

“I think ol’Will did care about them,” Leon said, rubbing his neck. “But I don’t think that makes any of the shit he did better. If anything, it just shows the bitch only cared a bit about a few people, thinking that everyone else could go to hell.”

Ada paused, frowning. “Maybe,” She said shortly. “But I don’t know what to make of any of it.”

“I don’t either,” Leon shrugged. “I don’t blame you for being bitter as hell, though. You went through a hell of a lot because of those pricks, and I know it was hard on you. Bet they didn’t think this was how things would happen this way, though.”

Ada pulled her sleeve back over her shoulder. “In fairness,” She said with a faint smile. “For awhile, I didn't think things would end this way either.”

Leon winked. “Well, you got more than you bargained for, didn’t you?”

Ada raised an eyebrow. “Leon --” She started.

“You know I’m just messing with you,” Leon grinned. “But, really. You didn’t expect us to have Kelly, did you?”

“No,” Ada admitted. “But,” She came over to him and kissed his cheek. “I am glad we had her either way.”

“That’s good,” Leon laughed darkly. “Especially since all of us have to live in this damn hide out together. Not saying it’s not a good hide out but, come on. Who would have thought the government would collapse and we’d have to fend for ourselves?”

“I’m sure none of us did,” Ada said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, pulling Leon between her legs. “Now, Leon, it is late, isn’t it? We ought to get some sleep. After all, we do have quite a bit to address tomorrow.”

“Jill, Chris, and Carlos’ reconnaissance,” Leon chewed at the inside of his cheek and then nodded. “Alright,” He said, kissing her forehead. “Good night, Ada.”

“Good night, Leon,” She replied, closing her eyes and, for the first time in years, slept dreamlessly and awoke with no pain from all the years of beatings and shootings.


	8. Chapter 8

All was quiet when Alice stepped out into the bunker’s garage, where the cars were still being stored. She sat down at the bottom of the steps into the space, and simply stared out at them. Her mind was reeling, and she had quite a few questions about everything that was going on. No one seemed particularly eager to tell her anything, most especially Ada and Claire, but every so often, when she was working with Carlos, Jill, and Chris on some of the hardware, software, and security upgrades in the bunker, they would let things slip enough for her to begin to put some of the pieces together. She still had more questions than she did answers for what the situation they were in was, but she at least understood the basics, which seemed to come down to Wesker and a few others being alive and potentially working with the vigilante groups in the area. Why would they work with someone like that? Alice hated the thought of anyone providing Wesker with shelter and, just as much, there was part of her that wanted to show him what for. Helping him was beyond her. He was a disgusting human being, in her eyes, one with a superiority complex and a violent past. Were people really hiding him?

The thought repulsed her.

Even odder, Alice mused, was that the vigilantes would want anything to do with Albert Wesker. He had been responsible for plenty of shit that went down in the city for years, and Alice was sure that everyone would have to know that. Just as strange, to her, was the notion that William Birkin of all people could potentially be alive too. Though Rebecca and Claire had both claimed that they doubted William wasn’t alive, still, Jill and Carlos had both expressed the belief that it was more than just a mad hunch. Truly, it wasn't something that Alice had considered. Tapping her fingers lightly against her chin, Alice let herself get lost in her thoughts, starting to chew on her lip. She tried to tease it out through reason, but she didn’t know of any circumstances that would leave one or both men alive. Ada’s assessment of the situation, too, had been curious to her, considering how sure the woman seemed to be of Wesker being alive, as Claire, Leon, and Rebecca all were too. Then again, Alice had her own doubts around Ada, even with what she had been told, never mind that she certainly did trust Sherry and Jake’s assessments of the woman.

_ “I’ll let you in on a secret,” Sherry had said while she and Jake moved boxes and Alice herself was working on the internal systems. “Ada is cold to everyone. She isn’t to me or to Leon or to Kelsey, but that’s because we’re family. It’s just habit for her. She was a spy, you know.” _

_ Alice had shaken her head. “Spies can act like normal people too. I just don’t understand anything about her. Nearly everything she does is a contradiction. When she talks, it’s clear she’s trying to decide whether or not telling people things would be useful to her, yet she also seems rather concerned about everyone surviving. I simply don’t understand it.” _

_ Jake had laughed. “Ada’s just an enigma,” He jokingly said, playfully elbowing Sherry. “Whatcha say, Sher? You think your mom’s a weirdo?” _

_ Sherry had swatted at his arm, albeit smiling a little. “She’s not a weirdo! She’s just reserved! Besides, she’s gone through quite a bit.” _

_ Alice had glanced at her in surprise. “Other than what all of us have had to suffer the past decade?” _

_ Sherry had nodded grimly. “Before she became a spy and came to the United States, she had built up a criminal history in Shanghai of bank robberies and attempting to shoot police. Actually, she once shot an officer in a hospital with the officer’s own gun.”  _

_ Jake had started clapping. “Fuck yeah!” He had chorused. “Ada and I might not like each other very much, but she’s still pretty interesting!” _

_ Alice had raised an eyebrow. “How in the hell did she ever get away and into espionage?” She had dubiously pressed. _

_ Sherry had shrugged. “From what I heard from her and Leon, they sent her to prison, she was attacked by other prisoners, and someone in a spy ring got her hacksaw blade. She climbed out of the prison using that and some tied up bedsheets and escaped with the spy via their car to a private jet and flew to the US. She worked in American espionage against China and Russia until the world fell apart.” _

_ Alice had let out a small sigh. “And that was when she got involved with the likes of Wesker?” _

_ “He was the one who freed her,” Sherry had replied. “But she doesn’t exactly have the greatest history with him beyond that.” _

It was quite strange to think about. Alice came back into her body from her thoughts and took in the cold of the room. She was not bothered by her surroundings at all, and, in some ways, the cold, metallic feel of it was almost comforting. The cars, too, took on an almost ethereal glint to them and Alice briefly wished she could take one out and see the situation beyond the safety of the bunker for herself. She had seen quite a bit while she and Jake had been hiding alone, before their position had become compromised, but she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. Alice glanced up at the ceiling, which was also made of the same reinforced metal as everything in the bunker was, although the more hospitable parts of the bunker did have drywall over them, making it seem more like a home rather than a hiding place. Hearing footsteps at the top of the stairs, Alice jumped in her skin and then felt quite silly upon seeing Jill Valentine-Redfield atop them, stepping down and, finally, sitting down beside her. Nothing was said between either of them for quite some time but then, finally, Jill gently patted her knee.

“Are you doing alright?” She said, her voice low. “You seem exhausted.”

“I am,” Alice numbly replied, reaching up to rub her neck. “It’s quite odd to remain hidden like this, for so long. Are we really going to keep living like this forever? Returning over and over to hiding for months on end after we steal a great deal of supplies and food to keep ourselves sustained down here? We are getting pretty close to having a sustained growing field down here, aren’t we? I mean…”

“We are getting close to being entirely self-sufficient,” Jill agreed. “But I’ll give you that hiding like this is no way to live...we just have to gather some more intel before we start going out again. Believe me, I’m getting antsy cooped up in here too. I’d enjoy a good mystery, or a good fight, or something of the like. Give me some unidentified bones, I don’t know. I just feel odd doing nothing but maintenance and domestic tasks.”

Alice managed a small laugh. “You’re not just going to go out into the world right now and scream ‘take me’ at the sky until the vigilantes come for a fight?”

Jill started to laugh herself. “That  _ would  _ be pretty damn fun,” She chuckled. “I could probably take them, too. I’m pretty good with automatics, and if you gave me a car to run them over with too…”

“They are just nameless faces,” Alice said, clicking her tongue in a nervous ticking. “Makes them easier to kill. You could stuff them down a tree, shoot them in the face, whatever. It could be fun to have people in a tree, if they’ve done terrible violence. I wouldn’t mind stuffing Wesker down a tree.”

Jill sighed. “It’s everyone for themselves out here,” She eventually said. “I definitely still grapple with the morality of what we have to do some days, but that’s what the world has come to. Like Leon has said before, government, law, rules...in this time….well, all of that is essentially just a suggestion at this point.”

Alice turned to her, eyeing her closely. “That’s quite true,” She quietly said. “I can’t help but wonder about it, though. Not that it matters much to me. At this point, I would simply like to get things sorted out.”

“Absolutely, we all do,” Jill paused and then finally shook her head. “And, as for Wesker….catching or even killing him might be frivolous, no matter what anyone else around here has to say. The truth is, it would probably be akin to killing a ghost.”

Alice frowned. “You really believe that?”

“I do,” Jill replied, an emotionless note to her voice. “But we’ll see. Perhaps there’s a great deal more to him and what has happened to him than we know. After all, he has always been a slippery one, and, to be perfectly honest, as someone who used to work with him, I wouldn’t put anything past him. Ada said the same thing, if you’ll recall.”

“It’s grim,” Alice countered. “You have to admit it’s still hard to wrap the head around.”

Jill nodded. “That’s true,” She said, briefly staring off into the void like Alice had been before. “Frankly, though, I’m not entirely convinced any of us want to know the truth because even our theories so far -- that he’s seeking support, more funding, more prestige again, or even just that he survived what happened all those years ago and was involved in the meltdown -- are fucked up as hell and I, for one, believe it’s possible none of us really want to know the truth.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Thought you might appreciate this.”

Sherry started laughing when Jake dropped a rather large paper bag down in between them, while he sat down across from her at one of the small tables in the bunker’s main room. Her eyes lit up when he pushed it halfway to the side to reveal two milkshakes in styrofoam cups. He teased her with it, pushing it towards her and then pulling it back at the last second. Sherry laughed, swatting at his hands and enjoying the sound of his laughter as well. It had been just over a month and a half since any of them had last left the bunker and Jake, surprisingly good at being obnoxious as hell, had worn down everyone else to get permission to leave. He had done more than stop at one of the nearby convenience stores (that, no doubt, was controlled by one of the warring vigilante groups) for snacks, but that certainly had been the most enjoyable part of the “excursion.”

At least he had been able to get his hands on a shit ton of ammunition. Really, as he told Claire when he had pulled back into the garage and she had watched him disapprovingly, he had hit the jackpot. She hadn’t any arguments to that assertion, either. Claire hadn’t been able to hide her excitement when she saw how many crates of ammunition he had managed to steal, courtesy of a remote bomb he had gotten from Ada and set before the robbery. And so, much to the delight of Claire who never failed to get excited upon seeing new ammo and arms, he had found himself on the receiving end of an unprecedented hug, one he had to squirm out of. Either way, Jake let it slide, having had good fun during the heist anyways. They were always more fun with Sherry but she had her own work, namely updating the external drives of the bunker’s main frame with Jill, Chris, and Alice.

“You got my favorite, right?” Sherry reached over to tickle Jake’s hands, both of them still laughing. “Thick strawberry with --”

“-- with almost a whole bucket of rainbow sprinkles on top and stirred in?” Jake was almost wheezing from laughter. “I ain’t a monster, Sher. No one’s stupid enough to forget what you like. Besides, I don’t wanna be popped off by a couple of rounds from your sweet sweet mum.”

Sherry grinned and started sipping on her milkshake. “Thank you, Jake!” She chorused, her eyes lighting up again when she pulled fried chicken and french fries out of the bag. “You robbed the store too, didn’t you?”

“A’ight, Bonnie, don’t lecture me for being Clyde,” Jake reached into the other bag he had dropped on the ground and pushed a silver pistol towards her, one that looked to be an antique. “Managed to find this for you while we were out, too. Guess those vigilante idiots don’t have much of a clue how to guard precious antiques. Not that it matters, given that you, unlike them, actually find this shit interesting and not just another tool to kill or intimidate people with.”

Sherry brushed tips of her fingers over the engravings deeply impressed against the pistol, her eyes lingering over the year of manufacturing -- 1929 -- and feeling drawn towards it. The weapon itself was nearly a hundred years old, and there was something about that simple fact that left a distinct impression on Sherry. In a funny sort of way, it was a comfort to know that something that appeared to be so delicate and worn could survive for as long as it had. There certainly was a sense of capacity, of being able to carry on in it, and Sherry clung to that. After a few minutes of careful examination, she set the gun aside and started chewing on the snacks Jake had brought, with him using the extra straws to make and shoot spitballs. Sherry returned this in kind, snagging the ones that had fallen to the bottom of the bag to retaliate. This went on for some time, the two of them trying to one up the other with their spitballs in between sucking down their milkshakes and enjoying their rare snacks.

“What are you two up to?”

Sherry and Jake burst out into laughter upon seeing Rebecca, who had come into the room with a thick file under one arm, a large tablet under the other.

“Jake managed to snag milkshakes and fried chicken,” Sherry said, leaning back against the chair and stretching out her arms, her legs swinging up onto the bare half of the table. “We’re just having a bit of fun with the extra shit that was stuffed in the bag.”

Rebecca rolled her eyes and set her file and tablet down on the central counter.

“Well, it sounded like he got a great deal more than just that,” She remarked, opening the projection function of her tablet. “Which may very well turn out to be a good thing. I know he did this in haste and, really, to get out of the bunker for the first time in months, but we might need that ammunition for defense in the coming weeks.”

Sherry and Jake immediately snapped their heads towards her in surprise.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Sherry exclaimed. “Did we finally find where Wesker is, or --”

“Actually, yes,” Jill, who in their shock they had not noticed entering the room with Ada, Claire, Leon, and Alice. “And it’s far closer than is comfortable.”

“Wesker being in the  _ state  _ is too close for comfort,” Leon muttered. Ada glanced at him and they briefly shared a look, though she did shrug before squeezing his shoulder. “Well? He is one of the masterminds behind Raccoon City.”

“Don’t remind me,” Jill swore under her breath. “And you didn’t even have to deal with the mansion incident.”

Rebecca raised an eyebrow and then sighed. “Well, either way, that was a long time ago,” She zoomed in on a location on the digital map, marked with a pin. “I suppose we should have seen it coming, but, then again, the building itself hasn’t been used in decades...until a few days ago, when Ada was able to break through a radio transmission signal to the radio wave emissions coming from the old Umbrella Corporation Headquarters. I didn’t expect it to be anything but, as it turns out, Umbrella’s Headquarters is back online.”

Claire hopped up onto the counter, crossing her legs at the knee. “That wasn’t what proved sunglass freak was there, though, don’t stroke yourself like that Becca.”

Rebecca sent her a pointed, yet also amused look. “I wasn’t the one who was able to determine that,” She replied. “Alice was.”

Ada snorted. “Of course she was,” She said almost inaudibly to Leon. “I could have done it too, if I had been given a few more hours to bug their systems and gain access to their cameras. Still don’t quite know how she did that. Raises more than a few questions, in my mind.”

Alice cast her a dark look and picked up a vase from nearby and threw it at her. Ada only just ducked out of the way and pulled her gun on her. Jill and Leon immediately stepped between them. Sherry and Jake stood up too, both of them lightly grabbing one of Ada’s arms while Leon pressed his hand over the top of her gun. She scowled at all of them, but no more than she glowered at Alice, whose hands were still balled into fists despite Jill and Claire both holding her back, Claire restraining her from behind and Jill from the front. Rebecca tiredly probed her forehead, more than a little annoyed. That feeling was only exacerbated when Chris and Carlos swaggered in with Kelly, who immediately got (decidedly far too) excited upon seeing her mother having pulled out her gun. When she saw the antique gun Sherry had left on the table, she got even more excited and immediately ran over to it to compare its structure to her own pistol, which she had been practicing most of the day with Chris. The thirteen-year-old’s elation, however, could not be said of the others, among whom the tension was still quite high.

“I’m not working with that son of a bitch,” Alice spat at Ada. “If that’s what you and your himbo husband are thinking.”

“Prove it,” Ada hissed.

“Himbo?” Leon exclaimed, utterly perplexed.

“Enough!” Rebecca snapped over them. “Disputes aside, the more critical point is that we now have  _ definitive  _ proof that not only is Wesker alive and, by the looks and sound of it, doing quite well for himself, but that he is within a twenty mile radius of us!”

Carlos and Chris both looked to her fearfully.

“That’ll be fun,” Chris said dryly, cracking his knuckles. “We can play hide and seek but it’s life and death.”

“Not funny, Chris,” Rebecca warned him.

“So we’ve gotta start espionage again?” Carlos grinned and elbowed Ada, who was still thoroughly unamused. “I think we’ve got more than a few people capable of that.”

Ada frowned, her eyes narrower still. “Oh, I don’t doubt that,” She said coldly, her gaze not wavering from Alice. “Not for a moment.”


	10. Chapter 10

"You what?"

It had been ages since Leon had seen his wife so incensed. Ada's hair was nearly sticking up on end from the dryness of the bunker's air, too, only amplifying her state. Rebecca, for her part, seemed utterly unperturbed by this and merely sighed, pouring herself a glass of wine. Claire, however, looked far more nervous and eyed Ada warily. She couldn’t understand how her wife was so calm. Ada and Alice had already come quite close to exchanging blows. Of course this was exacerbating that. Ada was, after all, an ex-spy who never took people circumventing her will well. Nevertheless, Claire leaned back against the wall, subtly sending Leon a dark look, a reminder of sorts to restrain her. Ada was pacing angrily, her heels leaving scratches against the floor while she walked. Leon sat down calmly, not particularly worried, and ignoring the look Claire was still giving him. He was sure Ada would calm down quickly.

“I allowed Sherry, Jake, Carlos, and Alice to go out to snag some supplies,” Rebecca said, sipping her wine and meeting Ada’s harrowing gaze with no hesitation or fear. “There isn’t anything unusual or odd about that. Besides the point --”

“I am fully convinced Alice is at the beck and call of Wesker,” Ada darkly cut in. “Either that, or she’s involved in something else underhanded. Frankly, I doubt it will end well for us to trust her.”

“Let me frame it this way,” Rebecca said mildly, looking at Ada over the tops of her glasses. “You trust Jake, to the extent that you have no issue with him being with and sleeping in the same bed as your daughter. Alice has been vetted by that same man, who, as I will continue to remind you, lived for over a year in a cramped bunker with her. How can you logically --”

“Logic doesn’t apply to people,” Ada coldly interjected. “Not when they are desperate and terrified. If desperation and terror does not apply to the world we live in now, then I don’t think there is really any theory to explain action. Why do you think the vigilantes steal as much as they do? Why do you think we steal from them? It’s because we need to, because we’re always going to be in competition with the people around us. It is us against them, and that’s not going to change any time soon. Frankly, I doubt it ever will.”

“No one can argue with that,” Claire said, scowling at her. “I don’t blame you for being a skeptic. We could have gotten ourselves killed so many times it’s almost impossible to count. But we also can’t be self destructive. After Helena’s death….”

Ada winced despite herself, pausing her pacing and swallowing hard.

“Helena’s murder was fucked up and desserved all of the retaliation we gave it,” Ada finally said, a fire burning in her eyes. “There was nothing about our reaction to that which could be conceivably called unwarranted.”

“Ada, you burned out several buses and cars in response to that,” Rebecca gently reminded her. “Not to mention how a-wall you went on that mission with Leon. You two almost got killed because you ended up cornered. Don’t forget that.”

Ada’s hands clenched into fists. The veins on her hands and inner wrist tightened and became more visible, but it was the scars up and down her arms, many of them old but a few of them from the attack she and Claire had been caught up in months ago. “This situation is nothing like that.”

Leon swiveled towards her, giving her a pointed (if concerned) look. “Ada,” He said, sounding nervous, his voice testing the waters. “I’m not a huge fan of Alice either. She’s definitely not the most...likeable person. That being said, I don’t think she’s in Wesker’s pocket either. She was just as stunned as all of us to find out he’s still alive, and it seems to me that she’s more interested in getting revenge on him for something rather than anything else. That doesn’t add up with her being his puppet.”

Rebecca tiredly gestured to him. “Thank you!” She exclaimed in exasperation.

Ada scowled at her and then her husband. “None of you know how espionage works,” She said, turning on her heel and quickly storming out of the room. “That remains my speciality.”

She passed her daughter in the hall down to her small office, and Kelly paused, her eyebrows shooting upwards in surprise.

“What’s got mom so pissed?” She eagerly asked, never one to turn down a good fight.

“Alice,” Claire told her, giving Leon a sympathetic look. “That’s going to be fun to live with. Good luck…’cause I don’t see her blowing off steam any time soon.”

* * *

It was completely dark by the time Sherry, Jake, Alice, and Carlos arrived at the old building of the Umbrella Corporation. It had been ages since any of them had been anywhere near the site, let alone inside of it. So long ago, it seemed, they had all been either residents of or working in the city. Sherry tightened her left hand around her nunchucks, with her right tightening around her fully-loaded gun. Her shoulders were coldly squared, and her jaw clenched. Jake had just as much of a hardened gaze as his partner. He was more than aware of her history. Everything about the city made her queasy, and Jake himself couldn’t shake a similar sense of discomfort. Carlos sighed upon seeing the logo of the Umbrella Corporation fully alight for the first time in nearly twenty years. But it was in Alice they found a rising desire for violence, whose two guns were both already fully cocked and loaded.

“We’re just going to do a cursory walk through of the building,” Jake said, crossing his arms and nodding shortly at Sherry. “Touch nothing. I’d rather not see our faces plastered throughout the region. Our fingerprints are on file because of our previous statuses. Let’s not get ourselves fucked up.”

Sherry frowned and aimed her hookwire upwards. It latched onto the building quickly, and she was shot upwards. Jake smirked, watching her disappear into the fire escape of the building. Following suit, Carlos moved into the back of the building, well aware of the obscure hidden entrance, and leaving Jake alone with Alice. The two of them simply stared up at the building for quite awhile, something about the way the warmth tinged the night air made them both feel sick. The smell of the smoke from the fires that blazed around the city and the surrounding areas only exacerbated the feeling. After several minutes -- neither of them were quite sure how long they had really been there -- the two of them shared a look. It was not long before he disappeared into the night too, skillfully starting to scale the building just beside Umbrella’s old headquarters. Alice took a few more minutes to take in the area, before finally slipping into the building’s from the front entrance.

From there, Alice began to run. She was well aware that she was being bold, reckless, and very possibly stupid. Everything about her was angry, her entire being shaking, and all but boiling in rage. She remembered quite well where Wesker’s office at the top of the building was, and she was damn near certain that was where he would be. The second she had gotten past the entrance and just barely skirted the view of the cameras, Alice began to run up the stairs, the rhythmic pounding of her feet against the concrete only reminding her of absolute loathing of the man she was looking for. Rebecca, at least for her part, had understood why she had been so insistent on coming. Wesker and his damned virus development experiments had harmed far more people than simply the people he had worked with and a couple hundred denizens of Raccoon City that had been unlucky enough to be trapped while most of the city had evacuated.

And, sure as hell, Alice had no sympathy or care for the Birkins, who, so far as she was concerned, had brought their fates upon themselves. She snorted at the memory of hearing what had happened to William and then Annette. Sherry had been lucky to escape them, but, then again, Sherry had fallen into the custody of Ada and Leon. Particularly after the events of the past week, Alice found herself thinking that to be a fate worse than death. It was that bitterness which drove her on, and the rubbing of her heavy armor against her did not deter her in the slightest. Around her rifles, too, her hands were still incredibly tightly wrought, and she had every intention of doing a great deal of damage to their greatest threat. That was what Claire had said of him, at any rate, and Alice certainly agreed. It was with that thought she burst through his office door, finding him sitting and staring out the window at the city below. He had aged certainly, and his hair was noticeably longer despite being slicked back as it always was but she was quite aware of who he was.

“Albert,” Alice spoke once she was right behind him, the barrels of both her rifles staring down his neck and head.

“I was wondering where you had went, Project Alice,” Wesker did not turn to look at her but pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at her. “Thought you might want this back.”

Alice looked down but kept her aim on him. Her fingers tightened and nearly fired when she saw what head tossed her way. It was a black diamond engagement ring.


	11. Chapter 11

“We got more outta this than I thought we would,” Jake dropped down the heavy backpack on the counter, much to the annoyance of Claire. “Don’t make that face. You’re the one who wanted us to get information on the building, and Sherry was able to bug the entire building and gain access to its security system and footage.”

Ada, who had been making adjustments to a shotgun, looked up with her eyebrows raised.

“Were you able to confirm Wesker is there?”

“Yes,” Alice said, looking at her rather venomously. “But we weren’t able to find or kill him.”

Ada snorted. “So then what was the purpose of you going in the first place?”

“I was gathering information, just like everyone else,” Alice pursed her lips. “Unlike you, who seems to have spent most of her time since I’ve come being absolutely useless, at least I did something that will actually benefit everyone.”

Ada stood up, her hands balling into fists. “If you say anything more,” She growled. “I will rip some of that pretty hair out of your skull.”

"As if you'd even get that far," Alice sent Ada a merciless glare. "I don't give a damn what you think about how we handled this, Ada, because we did what we fucking could and all came out of it alive. So why don't you accept that, rather than keeping that stick up your ass?"

Ada started towards her, but Leon pulled her back.

"Let's not have a murder today," He said, firmly restraining her. "I, for one, have no desire to have to clean blood off the walls."

"That's not a great argument against that, but, sure, I'll let you have the sentiment," Claire shook her head. "Come on, Ada. We're all feeling like shit and have been for months. No need to start killing amongst ourselves."

"Who's to say there isn't a spy in our midst," Ada darkly looked back to Alice. "I know you haven't been honest with us."

"That's where you're wrong," Alice evenly replied. "I haven't done a damn thing but support and protect you and everyone else here. Quite big talk, too, coming from a woman who has been more than once convicted of criminal espionage. Not that it matters. We all know government has been nothing more than a suggestion for the better part of the last decade."

“I am not cleaning it up if the two of you kill each other,” Rebecca glared at them both. “We have actual issues to bear in mind. Could the two of you give it a rest? I don’t give a damn whether or not you two hate each other, or are suspicious. We don’t have time for this!”

Jake raised his hands above his head, taking a few steps back. Sherry watched him, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

“As long as no one is shooting me, shoot whoever you want,” Jake said, mainly looking at Ada. “We got some interesting information and access to watch ‘em. Sounds to me like we’ve earned time to relax.”

“I’m down for that,” Claire said, stretching out her arms. “Any of you want to help me teach Kelly how to shoot moving targets? ‘Cause I don’t wanna do it just with Chris and Carlos. They’re fucking up her aim, you know.”

Ada raised an eyebrow with a low chuckle. “She just likes the automatic weapons,” She said with a shrug. “Aim or not, she doesn’t have to be as perfectly accurate with those. Personally, I think she’ll be very good at protecting herself once she’s old enough to go out on jobs with you or Sherry and Jake.”

Claire smirked. “I’m going to teach her to be a better driver than her father, that’s for damn sure.”

“I would hope so,” Ada said, laughing a bit more and releasing some of the tension in her arms.

“Everyone’s better at driving than Leon,” Sherry said, trying not to laugh herself when she saw the look her father gave her. “Dad, sorry, but you can’t drive.”

“That’s not at all fair!” Leon protested. “I happen to be quite good at evasive maneuvers and I was a police --”

“Yes, you were a ‘police’ weren’t you?” Rebecca joked, playfully smacking him in the arm. “You are never going to win this argument, Leon, just give it up now. Even your wife agrees.”

“Well, Ada has been in a car with him,” Jake chortled. “God, I can’t even imagine how anyone comes out of that still being willing to get in a car again.”

“I was a spy,” Ada replied, walking back over to her guns to continue making adjustments on them. Her focus remained on her shotgun, and she brushed her bangs better away from her eyes. “Believe me,” She went on. “I have been in cars with much worse drivers. Hell, I’ve been in helicopters with much worse pilots than Leon. He’s not a great driver, but he’s not the worst at it.”

Leon slid into the chair next to her, popping back his shoulder blades. “I would have thought I’d get more defense from my wife,” He said, looking at her with wide eyes. “Come on…..you can defend me better than that! I’m not  _ that  _ bad at driving!”

“Perhaps,” Ada said, squinting as she reached for her screwdriver. “But I speak only the truth. You’re really not that great at it. Even when you tried to drive more carefully when I was pregnant with Kelly, it wasn’t all that great. Honestly, it was concerning.”

Leon groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” He said, leaning back against the chair. “I am perfectly careful when driving!”

“No, you’re not,” Claire shuddered at the thought. “I remember how you were driving when we first met in ‘98. It was  _ atrocious _ .”

“From what I’ve witnessed since then, I believe it,” Rebecca said, crossing her arms and starting to pace. “Regardless, at least we don’t have to worry about him driving anywhere. He’s usually the one being driven these days.”

“Oh, definitely,” Jake grinned and high-fived with Sherry, he was laughing now herself. “Leon can let me drive! If he’s willing to let me date his daughter, then he’s --”

“Did you not see anything in the Umbrella Corporation Headquarters?”

Everyone looked up upon hearing Alice speak. They seemed to have forgotten she was there. When she spoke, she had used a low voice that was almost a hiss.

“What?” Rebecca turned towards her in shock. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I saw Annette Birkin on video surveillance footage near Wesker’s office,” Alice said, looking over them darkly through lidded eyes. “At least one of Sherry’s biological parents was alive.”

Sherry paled, looking almost like a ghost, her chest tightening. “What?” Sherry swallowed hard and shook her head. “No, no, no! I thought I saw her….I thought she had...I thought she was dead! I thought my father had --”

“How do you know this?” Claire pressed, nervously looking towards Ada and Leon. “I know we weren’t able to be connected to the system, yet, but --”

“I put us online in that sector,” She said shortly. “And that was the first thing I saw.”

Jake and Sherry both grimaced. They, too, glanced to Ada and Leon, both of whom were rather tense. Ada, however, stood up, setting her shotgun to her hip, an intimidating stare directed towards Alice. Unfazed, Alice straightened herself out and met her cold gaze unflinchingly.

“What do you know, Ada?” Alice said, her voice almost a purr. “I think you owe all of us, and especially your daughter, the truth about what happened to the Birkins.”

“You will never solve the mystery,” Ada growled, diving out of the way of Alice’s kick and pulling her gun on her. “I don’t have much of a clue, and the truth is that the only person who could give the answer is now beyond the jurisdiction of earthly courts. The affair is closed. It doesn’t involve witches, black magic, moonlight rites, conspiracy, espionage, lies, coverups, or anything you could possibly be thinking. The person responsible died insane back in 1998, after injecting himself with Golgotha Virus, and that would be William Birkin. He is the only person who knows what was done to Annette, and I am not convinced you actually saw her. Even if she did survive --”

“How can you expect me to believe that?” Alice shook her head and stared down the barrel of Ada’s gun. “You don’t have to trust me, but, I swear, I will never trust you either. Especially not after this.”

“Ada, put the gun down,” Leon said cautiously, his hands up. “Please.”

Ada eventually lowered the gun, her lips pursed. “I will find something on you,” She hissed to Alice. "I guarantee that."


	12. Chapter 12

“Weird to see you down here.”

Ada turned around in surprise, pulling her gun but quickly lowering it when she saw it was only Mary Lynn.  _ Chris and Jill probably sent her down here to keep an eye on me….of course. _ Briefly, she looked to see if, by chance, Kelly were with her but the two of them were alone. Sighing, she gestured towards the small area across from her, watching as the seventeen year old sat down, looking around as if she were unsure if she were supposed to be there. Ada glanced to the stairwell, her heart sinking when she realised Leon was not coming down. Quickly, she reminded herself that he probably didn’t even know she was down there, and that was if he were back from his recon mission with Sherry. Quietly, she snorted. Rebecca had, after much persuasion from Claire (who Ada suspected was very much tired of keeping her away from Alice lest the two women duel), agreed that Sherry would go alone with Leon to Umbrella’s headquarters. Jake had been more than content with the arrangement (if only because he wanted to “teach” Kelly new ways to shoot things) and Alice, according to Rebecca, had said nothing of it and was more than willing to instead go with Carlos on a food and supply raid.

_ “Just let it go, Ada,” Rebecca had told her, sipping her coffee and looking completely exasperated. “It isn’t worth it. Honestly, it would be better for all of us. The last thing we need is for her to betray us to the likes of Wesker. Have you considered that you might be pushing her in that direction?” _

_ Ada had tensed, and Leon had reached over, lightly resting a hand over her knee. _

_ “If she tries anything,” Ada hissed. “Anything that might harm me or my family, I will shoot her without question and that will be something everyone will have to accept.” _

_ Leon had nervously looked at her but then shook his head and wrapped an arm around her. “I’m with Ada,” He finally said. “Wesker has done enough to fuck up our lives over the years.” _

_ Rebecca had sighed, setting down her coffee and tiredly rubbing her eyes. “Alright,” She said, starting out of the room. “I’ll leave it be, then.” _

_ Ada had watched her leave, not standing up herself until the door closed behind Rebecca. Leon had watched while she started to look through her phone. Silence had held between them for quite awhile, but, finally, he spoke: _

_ “Everything alright?” _

_ “Yeah,” Ada had paused and then slipped her phone back into her pocket. “Leon,” She said quietly. “Am I doing the right thing? Or am I simply vicious and paranoid?” _

_ “You’re neither,” He had given her a small smile. “I’m worried too, Ada. I agree things look suspicious and the way things have been lately….” _

_ Ada had frowned, rubbing her neck. “She keeps so much from us,” She muttered. “What she had to say about Sherry’s biological parents, for example.” _

_ “That had to be bullshit,” Leon had shaken his head. “She definitely said that just to upset her. And it worked. She knew Sherry was going to be upset….and I just hope she’ll feel better about it soon.” _

_ “I do too,” Ada had stepped back over to him and kissed his cheek. “I’m lucky to have you. Feels like no one else is on my side.” _

_ Leon had smiled and kissed her back. “Well, who else’s side would I be on?” _

Ada came back to her senses upon hearing fingers snapping in front of her face. She scowled at Mary Lynn the second she realised it was her, though, she supposed, it was better than nearly all of the alternatives. The seventeen year old stared at her for a minute, torn between feeling confused or startled. Then, Mary Lynn took several steps back and sat down on the stairs across from where Ada was standing against the wall. All three cars were out and not in the garage, leaving the otherwise cramped space feeling eerily roomy. It was times like these that Ada felt the most aware of what the world had become, of how much they had stripped away. It was maddening to even consider what the world had been when everything had started falling apart in that autumn of 1998. 

“What’s on your mind?” Mary eventually asked, leaning back into the stairwell. “You look like hell.”

“Sometimes,” Ada told her, pausing briefly to take in a deep breath. “That is alright.”

Mary blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that sometimes you just aren’t going to have the heart to let go of certain things,” Ada eyed her closely for a few seconds. “And, when it’s so tightly wrought, sometimes it’s for the best that you make friends with your demons.”

Mary shook her head. “That doesn’t sound healthy.”

“What we like to think is healthy is often very unhealthy,” Ada countered, glancing over her shoulder as if she expected to find someone but finding nothing. “And that’s all there is to it.”

* * *

Leon knew the second that he and Sherry pulled up in the alleyway that they were not going to end up doing anything they had been sent out to do. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach while they got out of the car, and he saw the nervous silhouette of two people around the corner. He knew now that Sherry had been staking out this spot since she had first received a note here over two months earlier, right after they had gained access to Umbrella’s security systems. However, even knowing that could not prepare him for what he saw. Even before he could see them, he saw Sherry’s eyes brim with tears. He sat down on the hood of the car, nothing but pure shock falling through him when he finally was able to meet the gazes of William and Annette Birkin, both of whom looked incredibly nervous and absolutely uncertain if they should be there. Sherry tightly embraced her biological parents, torrents of conflicted emotions rushing through her. They looked more tired, a little greyer, but it was them. Leon had no doubt of that.

He did, however, have an abundance of questions.

“I hope you two know my wife and I have raised her since she was twelve,” Leon said once the four of them were around the car. “And how the hell aren’t you dead?”

“Annie,” William said.

“Luck,” Annette bitterly replied. “Sheer dumb luck.”

Sherry sat down on a set of crates near Leon’s car, rubbing the tears away from her eyes. “I never thought I’d see you guys again,” She swallowed hard. “Dad -- Leon, that is -- he said he had thought….that --”

“I barely remember any of it,” Annette gently cut in, tiredly probing her forehead. “I must have done something to treat myself, and I remember a STARS member having been with me but…..but that’s about where it ends. I do remember finding your father and trying to give him the vaccine out of desperation and I still am in disbelief that it worked.”

Leon grimaced. “What the hell happened to you two after that, then?” He nervously pressed.

William glanced to Sherry. “We ended up in London,” He said, letting out a heavy sigh. “The British government granted us protection from America and, more specifically, the people we used to be connected with in Umbrella. It was about….2003 when we first were able to get information on Sherry but, of course, that was the same year the reactors failed.”

“Holy shit,” Leon stared at them and then looked over to Sherry, reaching over to pat her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I missed you,” She met Annette’s gaze, her voice shaking. “I thought you had died for me. I…”

Without even thinking, Annette came over and tightly embraced Sherry, starting to cry herself. “I would have, baby,” She whispered. “If it had kept you safe, I would have died for you and I still would. I know it’s been too long….but --”

“Fifteen years is a long time,” William anxiously cleared his throat. “And it was our fault.”

“Partially,” Leon agreed. “But I’m more inclined to blame Wesker. Speaking of which, what were the two of you doing in Umbrella? Recently, that is.”

“This,” Sherry pulled a vial out of her pocket and tossed it to Leon. His eyes widened in surprise. “My….my mother left me this hidden with one of the notes. It’s the sample of the mutated T-Virus Wesker is using now to manipulate the situation here to his advantage.”

Annette nodded, though she did not release her tight embrace of Sherry. Much to her surprise, Sherry didn’t protest. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but this really isn’t the place to answer them.”

Leon nodded, pocketing the vial. “Alright,” He said, crossing his arms. “I think I know what you want and I doubt they’re going to be happy about it….but get in. At the very least, you two know more than we do about the viruses.”

Annette quickly slipped into the back of the car with Sherry, but Leon and William hesitated, staring each other down.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because,” Leon said, gesturing to Sherry inside the car. “For all your faults, I know you two love her. I do too, but Ada and I have our own child and I would do exactly what you two have, maybe even worse if it were in her best interest. Sherry, ever since Ada and I took her in, has never gotten over losing the two of you even if she calls us ‘mom’ and ‘dad.’ I wouldn’t turn down a chance to reunite with Kelly if I lost her and I know Ada wouldn’t either….so, in that sense, I understand, especially since I know you two tried to get out with G and hand it over to the government.”

William eyed him strangely. “I never thought you would --”

“Things change when you’re a parent,” Leon said, waving William into the car. “What matters is that you’re here and want to do what’s right now. So….let’s get the hell out of here and back to safety.”


End file.
